It was the Air Force’s most difficult mission. For four months, Eurofighter interceptors occupied the hottest frontier in the confrontation between Russia and the West: the Polish skies off the Kaliningrad enclave. Never before have there been so many scrambles, alarm launches, to reach the Moscow jets, which aimed at NATO airspace, often entering the areas of competence of Warsaw, Oslo or Copenhagen without warning: Kaliningrad is only a five-minute flight away, Belarus twenty. 23 times the Italian jets took off at supersonic speeds, flanking the fully armed Sukhois, who were darting across the Baltic Sea: encounters only a few meters apart. The pilots’ professionalism prevented accidents, even in moments of extreme tension. Just as two weeks ago, two Russian fighter-bombers got caught in the middle of an anti-aircraft drill by Dutch and French ships and risked provoking a defense reaction: the planes flew over the frigates at very low altitude. The White Eagle Task Force has now completed its deployment at Malbork Airport in Poland: General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, commander of the Covi, who coordinates all operational activities of the armed forces, welcomed the 130 soldiers last Friday. However, a new mission on the borders of the Ukraine crisis is already ready for the Air Force: The Eurofighters will soon take up position in Romania and patrol the Black Sea.
by Gianluca DiFeo